Of course the situation is not helped by the number of parents trying to get their kids into the better performing schools even though they are outside the catchment areas or aren’t church attenders. I know it sucks, but if you want you’re kids to go to a good school you have to be prepared to pay to live in that area or make the requisite effort to attend church.

We actually found our local, low performing comprehensive school to be a far better option than the high performing church school up the road. The Church school is costing along on it’s reputation but has shown no actual improvement since my husband went their, unlike out local comp which is improving year after year and has teachers who are actually fired up and enthusiastic about what they teach. Okay, it’s rough, but bullying happens no matter how good the school, but a smart kid will do well wherever they go and perhaps if more parents dropped the snobby attitude towards schools like this and trusted their kids, maybe it we’d find it could actually out perform the local “favourite”.

Anyway, enough ranting, here’s the article (Daily Mail, so keep your bucket of salt handy)

More than 100,000 children set to miss out on first-choice secondary school

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:44 AM on 01st March 2010

More than 100,000 are expected to miss out on their first choice of secondary school today when allocated places are released.

The number of disappointed pupils and parents is set to edge ahead of last year’s number as councils send out e-mails and letters to over 500,000 families across the country.